GI Press Releases
Fairbanks, Alaska—Fish are the primary foods for many animals in Alaska, including humans. Scientific research has revealed possible contaminates affecting fish in their natural habitats and risks associated with diets rich in fish. 
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Scientists are now at Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks preparing to launch two NASA sounding rockets for two separate experiments. The launch window for both experiments opens on January 26, 2010 and extends until February 15, 2010.
Fairbanks, Alaska—Aurora displays in the night sky are one of the pleasures Alaskans look forward to during our long winters. The intensity of the aurora is dependent on particles being emitted from the sun. Solar activity is tracked in cycles and when the sun goes into a minimum, the aurora is visible less frequently. Typically, a solar minimum lasts about one year. However, the current minimum has been going on for more than three years.
An Alaska researcher and her colleague from the University of British Columbia have calculated that the rate of sea-level rise due to the meltwater from glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere will increase by as much as 60 percent by the year 2100, and that half of the world’s smallest glaciers won’t survive until then.
A sub-orbital sounding rocket was successfully launched this morning, at 12:39 AM, from Poker Flat Research Range. The rocket, a Black Brant XII, captured measurements to deduce characteristics about the processes that create the aurora. The project is called the Rocket Auroral Correlator Experiment (RACE).
The United States Navy has awarded the University of Alaska Fairbanks up to $47 million to test and evaluate payloads aboard small, unmanned aircraft.
The UA Unmanned Aircraft Program, part of the UAF Geophysical Institute, will lead the research. The program will test unmanned aircraft and how they perform in harsh conditions. In addition, they will evaluate payloads, which are packages of data-collection instruments carried on the aircraft.
Fairbanks, Alaska— The Keith B. Mather Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute now houses the state’s only Patent and Trademark Depository Library.
The Keith B. Mather Library boasts a collection of more than 27,000 books, 24,000 reports and now a new librarian.
After a lengthy search and vetting process, Flora Grabowska was selected as the new librarian and research assistant professor to take the helm of the library. The Mather Library supports both the Geophysical Institute and the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Grabowska will begin work at the library on Aug. 30, 2010.
A National Science Foundation grant is providing six undergraduates the ability to gain valuable experience conducting their own atmospheric science research here in Alaska. The program puts students into the field, working closely with faculty from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Permafrost warming continues throughout a wide swath of the Northern Hemisphere, according to a team of scientists assembled during the recent International Polar Year.
Their extensive findings, published in the April-June 2010 edition of Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, describe the thermal state of high-latitude permafrost during the International Polar Year, 2007-2009. Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor with the snow, ice and permafrost group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, is the lead author of the paper, which also details the significant expansion of Northern Hemisphere permafrost monitoring.
